March 29, 2011 2:16 pm

Josie Emmons Turner. Photo: Jeffery Hurdus.

The Tacoma Arts Commission has selected Josie Emmons Turner as the 2011-2013 Poet Laureate for the City of Tacoma. The Tacoma Poet Laureate program was founded in 2008 by the Urban Grace Church, and is now managed by the City of Tacoma Arts Commission. This year is also the first laureateship to be a two-year position. Emmons Turner will be officially instated at a free public ceremony and reading in conjunction with National Poetry Month on April 28 at Bellaballs Studio.

“I am thrilled, anxious and excited to be the next Poet Laureate,” said Emmons Turner.

The program showcases Tacoma’s literary talent through public readings and workshops led by the Poet Laureate. Over the next two years, Emmons Turner will provide free poetry related workshops, readings at public events, participate in Art at Work: Tacoma Arts Month each November and will help produce the 2013 Tacoma Poet Laureate ceremony to announce the next Poet Laureate.

Emmons Turner is a local poet whose work has been published in “20/20 Tacoma in Images and Verse,” 2010 Floating Bridge Review no. 3, “In Tahoma’s Shadow,” the California Quarterly and Backstreet Review. She has a Masters of Fine Arts from Pacific Lutheran University and a Bachelor of Arts from Seattle University, and is a creative writing teacher at Clover Park High School.

The Poet Laureate award ceremony will be at 7:30 p.m. April 28 at Bellaballs, 747 S. Fawcett St., Tacoma. It is free. Information about the Tacoma Poet Laureate program is available on the Tacoma Arts Commission website at www.tacomaculture.org

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